ethnocentrism

ethnocentrism,

the feeling that one's group has a mode of living, values, and patterns of adaptation that are superior to those of other groups. It is coupled with a generalized contempt for members of other groups. Ethnocentrism may manifest itself in attitudes of superiority or sometimes hostility. Violence, discrimination, proselytizing, and verbal aggressiveness are other means whereby ethnocentrism may be expressed.

ethnocentrism

the attitude of prejudice or mistrust towards outsiders which may exist within a social group; a way of perceiving one's own cultural group (in-group) in relation to others (out-groups). The term was introduced by W. G. SUMNER (1906) and involves the belief that one's own group is the most important, or is culturally superior to other groups. Thus, one's own culture is considered to be racially, morally and culturally of greater value or significance than that of others, and one becomes distrustful of those defined as outsiders. It also involves an incapacity to acknowledge that cultural differentiation does not imply the inferiority of those groups who are ethnically distinct from one's own.

a characteristic of certain personality types. The ethnocentric personality is described by T Adorno et al. (1950) in The Authoritarian Personality (see AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY). Initially this study was concerned with the social and psychological aspects of anti-Semitism, but developed into a study of its more general correlates. Adorno et al. were concerned with explaining attitudes towards other ‘out-groups’ in American society, such as homosexuals and ethnic minorities, and maintained that antagonism towards one ‘out-group’ (e.g. Jews) seldom existed in isolation. They found that ethnocentrism tended to be associated with authoritarianism, dogmatism and rigidity, political and economic conservatism, and an implicit anti-democratic ideology. Thus, hostility towards one ‘out-group’ (see IN-GROUP AND OUT-GROUP) was often generalized and projected onto other ‘out-groups’. See also PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION, RACISM OR RACIALISM, ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE SCALE.

She also presents an articulate narrative interspersed with Edinburgh dialect that defies Anglocentric conformity, demonstrating a well-read and critical ability to interrogate rather than passively comply with discursive authority's power.

Part II challenges dominant Anglocentric articulations of Baptist identity by delineating how that by 1800 the Baptist movement had come to "incorporate several independently generated traditions that had no connections to prior Baptist bodies" (53).

Some have been interested in the novel's depiction of national identity--of Englishness--and especially in its depiction of its working-class characters as expressions of an Anglocentric English identity.

The news would be just as objective as the BBC/Ch4 (which admittedly aren't perfect, but are far too anglocentric - Welsh/Scottish stories are normally "fringe" ones, and never specific - stories happen in Wales, not the locality.

Secrets of Nature (2001), represents the high point of recent scholarship devoted to the Rosicrucian movement, which has moved firmly away from the anglocentric thesis of Frances Yates, who saw John Dee as a prime mover behind the Rose Cross.

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